


Amy, Don't Take Your Love To Town

by knowyourrights



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1950s, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Ficlet, Korean War, Married Couple, Paralysis, Post-War, Songfic, Veterans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-03-22 08:29:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13760196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knowyourrights/pseuds/knowyourrights
Summary: Based on "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town" by Kenny Rogers, but with a sweeter ending.In which Jake is left paralysed after the war, and Amy is considering going out dancing.Jake really, really doesn't want her to.





	Amy, Don't Take Your Love To Town

**Author's Note:**

> As I said, this is based on "Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town" by Kenny Rogers, but less dark.   
> SIDENOTE: Jake's idea of a 'perfect life' in this is very outdated, but I wrote what I assume it would be for a man living in the mid-fifties.

Jake watched the last rays of sunlight streaming in through the mesh curtains, exposing the dust on their musty wooden floors. Three years ago, those floors would have been shiny, dark mahogany, but then again, a lot had been different three years ago. Back then, Amy had stayed at home, fixing their clothes, listening to the radio as she sat on the front porch. She also cleaned the floor.

She was a real homemaker, Amy was. She wanted everything in the house to look beautiful, just like her, although she never would have admitted that she was a stunner. That was up to Jake, when he came home from working out in the lumber yard across town, and he’d sweep her off her feet, and tell her he loved her.

God, if there was one thing he missed, it was sweeping her off her feet.

But now she worked the cash register in the grocery store, and he was on his own between ten and five all week, except for when she’d run home at half past noon to give him lunch. Amy would leave the television on all day, and he would watch whatever news show, sitcom, adverts were on. And when Amy would return in the evening, she would sit with him and talk, or feed him his dinner, or change him into his pajamas. No time for cleaning floors anymore.

It wasn’t like he was ashamed of his condition. No, he had gotten his medal with pride. It had been his patriotic responsibility to fight for his country, and the sacrifice of his movement from his neck down was worth it. At least that was what he told himself.

But when Amy had to go back to work late after lunch because he had soiled himself, and she had to clean him off, or when she took him into town on the fourth of July, and all that he could see were whispers about how soon enough, he wouldn’t even be around, he couldn’t help but feel the shame rising within him. After that time, he had asked Amy to stop taking him into town. He could deal with the shame; it was her he didn’t want to hurt. Amy had held her head up, shooting sharp looks at anyone who made a snide comment about him, but as they sat in the park, her on a bench, him in his wheelchair, and someone walked past, whispering to the person next to him, about how she was probably having an affair, or that they pitied her, the humiliation in her eyes was clear. She had insisted that it was nothing, and that she wasn’t embarrassed that her husband was a veteran, but Jake knew Amy far too well to believe her.

Amy stepped into the living room, looking at herself in the mirror as she put on a pair of earrings. He had bought them for her on their first anniversary, back before he had been deployed, shipped off to Korea with a gun and a helmet. Jake still remembered the look on her face as she opened to the box, grinning with joy. Now, there was no surprise. He couldn’t pay for her presents, let alone go out and buy them for her.

She was dressed in a pale peach dress, strapless, that went down to just below her knees. A slightly darker, thick sash wrapped around her waist matched the ribbon she wore as a headband.

“You look beautiful tonight.” He said, admiring her. It was like no matter how many times he looked at her, the starstruck awe at her beauty never disappeared.

“Thank you, Jake. I was thinking about going into town. There’s a dance on.” Jake smiled at the melancholy memories of taking Amy out for a night of dancing. It was understandable that she would go alone. Amy loved to dance, and that was not something he could provide her with. There were many things he could no longer provide her with.

“Well, I’m a fantastic dancer.” He said, nodding at his unmovable limbs.

Amy retorted with a half-smile, that spoke both of amusement at the joke, and sadness at the reality of the situation. Jake really had been a fantastic dancer. Had.

“Will you be okay on your own tonight?” She asked, sitting down on the couch beside him, placing her hand in his. Hers squeezed, but he couldn’t grasp her back, no matter how hard he tried. She bit her lip and looked away from their hands, up at him. “Do you want me not to go?”

Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, _yes_.

“No, you should go. I know that a girl like you has to have fun.” He said, ignoring every other part of his brain that screamed to make her stay. If he wanted to, he could tell her not to go. If he wanted to, he could ask her to quit her job and stay at home with him all da, and to never leave the house. And she would do it, just like that.

He so desperately wanted to.

“Are you sure? If you would rather have me here, I’ll stay. Just say the word.” Amy planted a comforting kiss on Jake’s lips.

 _Yes, yes, yes, yes_.

“Amy, I’m serious. Go out dancing. I’ll be fine.” Jake said firmly, against all of his natural instincts. As much as he wanted the comfort of Amy by his side, he knew that his job had always remained the same. Make her happy. And if Amy being happy meant sitting alone for hours as she danced with the young, able-bodied men of the town with crushes on her, then so be it.

“But what if you’re cold, or hungry, or need to use the bathroom? What if there’s an emergency?” She frowned with worry.

“You do plan on coming back, don’t you?” He joked, and Amy gave a small laugh, “Look, I’m here alone for hours everyday, and I’m fine.”

Amy continued to frown. “But that’s only because I have to leave you. Believe me, I so desperately want to stay here with you all day.”

That was just like Amy. It was the sort of unconditional love that withstood spinal chord injuries caused by shrapnel.

“Please, just _go_. I know I’m not the man that I once was, and I’m not going to let that ruin your life.” Jake pleaded with her.

Amy suddenly stopped looking worried, and instead stared at him in surprise. “Jake, do you think that you’ve ruined my life?”

‘ _Yes’_ , He thought, ‘ _This crazy Asian war paralysed me and now you are suffering the consequences of that. Your husband can’t support you. You are town gossip. You dedicate your life to working and taking care of me. I ruined your life.’_

“Ames,” He said instead, “I know that I don’t exactly make things easy for you.”

All of a sudden, Amy was kissing him, almost straddling his numb body on the arm chair, one hand on either side of his head. Jake tried to lean in, but was unsuccessful, only being able to tilt his head up slightly as she deepened the kiss. When Amy finally pulled away, she whispered, “You haven’t ruined anything. I’m not still here because I have to be, I’m still here because _I love you_. I never once stopped loving you, Jake.”

“I love you too.” Jake whispered back.

“I’m staying here tonight.”

“Amy, just go out, darling.” He sighed.

“No.” She crossed her arms in defiance.

“You know you want to.”

“What I want is to stay here with you.”

Jake raised his eyebrows. “Well, I don’t want you to be here. I want you to be out, dancing.”

“Tough luck.” She shrugged, “I ain’t going anywhere.”

Jake just started to laugh, grinning at the woman in front of him, his heart filling up with joy at her stubbornness.

“What is it?” She asked.

Jake sighed, still smiling. “Ames, I swear to God I fall in love with you again everyday.”


End file.
